With a little thought, it's obvious these things make no sense

Also in Opinion

Subscribe to The Dispatch

Already a subscriber?
Enroll in EZPay and get a free gift!
Enroll now.

Sunday January 29, 2012 6:46 AM

Disparate grievances are rattling
around the brain. They want out. Please indulge some Sunday moanin’ on a Sunday mornin’.

• U.S. House Speaker John Boehner of West Chester told
Politico last week that he thought Republicans had gerrymandered enough congressional
districts around the country to retain control of the House through 2020.

Certainly Boehner and fellow GOP map-makers did their part in Ohio. Of the 16 new districts they
drew, 12 are so ironclad Republican that even Mo, Larry or Curly could win with an
R behind his name. Boehner’s braying that Republicans will hold the House for another 10
years prompts this question: To what end?

Boehner already has a caucus so steeped in right-wing ideology that he can’t possibly accomplish
anything. Last year, it seemed that every time Boehner even hinted that compromise might be
necessary to make progress, he got slapped down by his own members, particularly the large class of
tea-partying freshmen.

And now, Boehner has bargained for even more of them. He — and the country — might do better if
more Republicans (and Democrats) were elected in competitive districts. Gerrymandering renders
general elections mere coronations of partisan primary election winners and too often yields
politicians from both parties who are far outside the mainstream.

If Boehner indeed has ensured his party’s decade-long dominance in the House by stacking it with
more ideologues, he will have simultaneously undermined his own promising legacy as a pragmatic
conservative leader.

• The outcry following news that major highway projects around Ohio could be long delayed
because the state’s transportation budget is running a $1.6 billion deficit rattled the Statehouse
like a train trembling Chicago’s Loop. What about our Inner Belt Bridge project, Cleveland
officials cried. How about our I-70/71 interchange rebuild, Columbus officials hollered.

Kasich is absolutely right. Nothing makes the homefolks happier, or a governor more popular,
than promising highway and bridge projects, never mind if there’s no money for them. Kasich had the
courage to halt the charade, knowing full well his popularity would take another hit.

“A lot of folks are mad, but we didn’t find it surprising because we saw this day coming,”
Christopher Runyan, president of the Ohio Contractors Association, told me last week. “We knew the
state didn’t have that much money.”

If local officials want their highway projects, they ought to advocate for an increase in the
gasoline tax. Every penny per gallon produces about $40 million for road and bridge projects.
Kasich’s GOP predecessors, George V. Voinovich and Bob Taft, increased the gas tax, but Kasich has
ruled it out, saying, “We want to be competitive.”

But having a viable transportation system is a key element in economic competitiveness. And
every penny of gas tax used for highway and bridge construction creates jobs and the demand for
materials, stimulating the economy.

“Refusing to stay on top of our need for infrastructure improvements in this country, with the
preferred revenue stream coming from those who use the improvements (motorists), is the epitome of
cutting off one’s nose to spite the face,” Runyan said.

• As if legalizing concealed guns in bars weren’t already the craziest law ever enacted by an
Ohio legislature, some of our lawmakers now propose passing bills to do the following: Allow guns
to be brought to the Statehouse parking garage and into places of worship and day-care centers and
onto college campuses.